Some O.C. firefighters live out of state

Nov. 28, 2010

Updated Aug. 31, 2014 9:09 p.m.

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Jeffrey Pedersen of the Orange County Fire Authority, at right, watches as firefighters put out hot spots at a 4-arce fire at the corner of Moulton Parkway and Laguna Hills Drive in Aliso Viejo in this June 5, 2009 photo. The fire was quickly extinguished when two fire authority water helicopters made repeated water drops. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 15 in Silverado Canyon. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 9 in Mission Viejo. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 63 in Buena Park. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 53 in Yorba Linda. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 55 in Irvine. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 22 in Laguna Hills. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 53 in Yorba Linda. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 55 in Irvine. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 15 in Silverado Canyon. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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OCFA Station 22 in Laguna Hills. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Lindy Pence learns about fighting fire from OCFA's Jeffrey Hoey during the Orange County Fire Authority's Open House in Irvine last year. Capt. Hoey, a 21-year veteran of the OCFA, lives in a secluded house in Bellingham, Washington FILE:, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Jeffrey Pedersen of the Orange County Fire Authority, at right, watches as firefighters put out hot spots at a 4-arce fire at the corner of Moulton Parkway and Laguna Hills Drive in Aliso Viejo in this June 5, 2009 photo. The fire was quickly extinguished when two fire authority water helicopters made repeated water drops. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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If there's a major disaster, officials at the Orange County Fire Authority might have trouble getting all their firefighters to quickly return to their stations.

That's because some active members of the department live in Colorado, Utah, Texas, and Washington state (map).

OCFA Engineer Lloyd Pinel, for example, would have to wait for the next available flight from Third Lake, Ill., The 21-year veteran's home is a 30-minute drive from Lake Michigan, but more than a three-hour flight from his station in Buena Park.

With more than 2,000 miles between his home and his place of work, Pinel has the longest commute of any OCFA firefighter.

Without any official restrictions on where they live, 37 percent of OCFA firefighters list their primary residence outside of Orange County – with many living in the Inland Empire.

In typical driving conditions with traffic, 10 percent of OCFA personnel can expect to drive more than two hours to reach their stations, according to personnel records requested and reviewed by The Orange County Register. The review also found that among their 821-member department, six captains and three engineers live outside California.

Some local officials are concerned at how quickly personnel could respond to a major emergency.

There are also budgetary concerns. Firefighters who live far away could adjust their shifts to minimize the amount of time they spend commuting and increasing the amount of overtime the get.

OCFA officials say residency requirements would not make sense, adding that requiring firefighters to live in Orange County would hamper recruiting efforts. Other large departments – such as the Los Angeles Fire Department – don't have residency requirements and also employ firefighters living outside the state.

Outside of California

Of the nine firefighters who live outside of California, many have chosen communities with large lots and lower home prices.

Capt. Jeffrey Hoey, a 21-year veteran of the OCFA, lives in Bellingham, Wash., in a house surrounded by acres of woods and grassy open spaces. Located about 90 miles north of Seattle, Hoey's home is about a 30-minute drive from Bellingham International Airport – about the same time it would take him to reach the U.S.-Canadian border.

It's a 1,200-mile commute to his fire station in Mission Viejo.

Messages and attempts to reach Pinel and Hoey and five other firefighters who live outside of the state went unanswered. But two out-of-state firefighters did agree to discuss their situations.

Capt. Paul Ravize, a 27-year-veteran stationed in Yorba Linda, makes three-and-half-hour drive from his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas.

Since he moved to Nevada, Ravize said he's never been called back for an emergency. During the last major fires, he was already in O.C. "If it's going to happen, I'm going to be there," he says.

With retirement looming, Ravize says he and his wife decided to invest in a home in Las Vegas: "I would not do it if I had 20 years left in the department."

He doesn't mind the 248-mile commute. ""It's therapeutic," he says. "Never thought twice about it. If I had to rearrange my schedule, catch flights, I wouldn't do it."

Ravize says he can get to work faster than some of his colleagues who must battle congested freeways.

"Maybe I can get there faster than some of the guys living in the Inland Empire who get stuck on the 91," he says.

Capt. Daniel Colgan, a 23-year-veteran who is stationed in Irvine and lives in Queen Creek, Ariz., says even though he lives outside of California he is available.

"I probably am available to work more than most people," he says. "I suppose there are times when I'm not that close, but I'm usually near work."

Residency requirements

OCFA is not the only firefighting agency without residency requirements: the Santa Ana Fire Department and the San Diego County Fire Authority, for example, don't have restrictions.

Several departments in years past required employees to live within the jurisdiction they served, but the requirements were either altered or dropped. Santa Ana Fire Capt. Chris Caswell says the department at one time required firefighters to live within the city. The requirement was changed to 30 miles within city hall and eventually dropped altogether.

The state constitution prohibits cities from requiring employees to live within their borders, but it does give them leeway in requiring some to live within a certain distance.

"We could," says Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion, "but it doesn't make a lot of sense for a larger department such as us."

"We have a lot more human resources here," Richter says. "It's not very often we have a large-scale recall, but if we did have that situation, we feel that we have the system in place where we can do that fairly readily."

Fiscal concerns

Villa Park councilman Brad Reese, who serves on the OCFA board of directors, says he is not only concerned with the inability of firefighters to get to their stations quickly, but the amount of overtime firefighters may be racking up to avoid lengthy commutes.

Firefighters may work 24-hour shifts nine to 11 days a month, and some might adjust their shifts to avoid the commute, Reese says.

"OT is just a common thing you're used to," says Reese, who used to volunteer as a reserve firefighter. "This is 24-hour OT. They may make a lot of money doing that."

There are opportunities for firefighters to link their shifts together and receive OT, Richter says, but there are limits in place.

Firefighters are restricted to 96 continual hours of work on a volunteer basis.

According to a previous review of OCFA overtime pay by The Register, the top 25 overtime earners for the agency received between $61,000 and $120,000 of overtime pay alone. Earning between $35,000 and $54,000 in overtime pay, none of the nine firefighters who live outside of California were among the top 25.

Four of them, however, earned more than $50,000 in overtime, ranking among the top 100 of OT . They included Engineers Lloyd Pinel and Jeffrey Pederson, and Captains Timothy Gogerty and Jeffrey Hoey.

Ravize, the Las Vegas resident, says he sometimes strings his shifts together, but it doesn't always translate to overtime.

"Sometimes, I'm working (someone's) shift," Ravize says. "I may be filling in for a guy who wants a day off for his kid's birthday or something. It's not always overtime."

"Because of those constraints, I don't think they would be at the top of the heap, based on the fact they would have to travel so far to pick up an extra shift of overtime," Richter says. "If they are working in Tombstone, (Ariz.), it's a long commute to try to get back for a 24-hour overtime shift."

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